Sunday morning brought show jumping day! We arrived nice & early so I could give him a long warmup if he still was a bit spicy. We got tacked up quickly and wandered over to the warmup. Only 2 other people were in there, so it was pretty quiet!
Banner was forward and happy to play! Not the slightly insane forward we had the day before, but a lovely, quiet forward that was so fun to ride and we got some fantastic warmup jumps with great distances!
I decided to quit while it all felt awesome, so I headed over to the main ring and went over my course a few more times. It was a nice, loopy course that gave us a good amount of challenge without being too crazy.
We ended up going 3rd (I wanted to watch a couple other people go around just to be able to watch the course and learn it a bit more). I gave myself a mini pep talk "do NOT micromanage him, just let him do his job!". We picked up a lovely canter and headed to the first fence, and I stuck to my plan. Square turn, forward pace, and BAM, beautiful jump!
A big right hand turn to another vertical. Slightly deep distance, but because I just allowed him to adjust himself and figure it out, it went beautifully! Next was a left hand turn to a 7 stride line. These have been a few of our tricky spots in the last few shows, since I often work on a shortened stride with him, I have to remember how to pace him for a true 12' stride line.
I pushed him into a bigger stride, so we got a long distance in, but it worked out great! A perfect 7 strides and a lovely distance to the out! Then was an oxer off of a kind of funky line, but I got him straight and with a little extra leg, he popped right over! Next was my favorite jump, a triple bar! Don't know why, but I always enjoy jumping triple bars, and Banner jumps them really nicely!
A left turn to our natural looking wood fence oxer! Because of Banner's weird little right hand drift, our left hand turns aren't always super sharp, so I really had to control his quarters to this fence. Once we got straight, he locked right on. One stride out he gave it a teeny tiny little peek, but then popped over it without hesitation!
The next two fences were two square oxers, set in a bending line. The way that they were set gave you two distinct options between the two jumps. One was more direct, but would get you to the second oxer on a slight angle. The other option added probably another 4-5 strides, but would allow you to land straight from the first fence and arrive straight at the second fence.
As I had walked the course that morning, I told myself we would take the longer route to give him a more square approach to the second jump. Once I got on course, Banner felt SO good and he was right with me over every single fence, so I decided to try for the more direct route. It worked out beautifully! We got a very slightly deep distance at the second jump, but he jumped it on an angle without hesitation, which I was thrilled about!!
We ended our 2'9" course with a 4 stride line, and he crushed it. Probably our best ever 2'9" round! There were a handful more riders in the 2'9" so we just hung out and waited for the 3'0" round to start. I felt really happy with how he felt and had a really good feeling about the 3'0"!
Finally we headed in, and I picked up a steady, solid canter again. I cut the corner to the 1st fence just a bit, and it got us in to a deep distance. Nearly cleared it, but he just brushed it and took pretty much the whole fence down (oops). I yelled sorry to the jump crew as I passed - which made them laugh.
A nice ride to the second fence and I was super happy with how he was feeling! Next into the 7 stride line, and he felt FANTASTIC. So fluid, soft, forward. Then we rode the right turn to the brick wall oxer. He took off nice and square, felt great, and then he landed.... And he was 3-legged lame. I was confused by how he felt & got him pulled up about 6 strides later. And when I looked back, I realized his LH shoe was twisted about an inch and a half to the outside!
I immediately hopped right off and walked him out of the arena. His shoes have clips on them, and the inside clip poked into his sole by about 1/2". My trainer ran over to the main barn & grabbed the nippers and a rasp and we pulled the shoe off. It clearly hadn't felt good and he was pretty sensitive on that foot as I walked him back to the trailer. I pretty much immediately untacked, loaded up and went home.
Luckily before I left I managed to check the weekends scores & noticed that we took home 3rd in the Novice HT from this weekend, finishing on our dressage score! So at least that was a fun little highlight of the weekend that ended up turning bad right at the very end unfortunately.
I got Banner's foot soaked in some warm water & epsom salts once we got home! Then packed his foot with more epsom salts and got it wrapped up. He was pretty stiff & sore but seemed fairly sound after a few hours.
My farrier swung by on Monday and cleaned up his hoof. He's fairly sure that the clip managed to avoid going in too deep so I'm hoping we will avoid an abscess! We are both still thoroughly confused as to how this happened. Especially on a hind foot??? But anyways, the shoe is back on, fill is applied in the places where he ripped out hoof wall, and now I wait to see if he stays sound. No heat in his leg or hoof so that is a good sign! (I also did get a triple A+ from my farrier for my wrap job, so that was awesome!)
Banner was forward and happy to play! Not the slightly insane forward we had the day before, but a lovely, quiet forward that was so fun to ride and we got some fantastic warmup jumps with great distances!
I decided to quit while it all felt awesome, so I headed over to the main ring and went over my course a few more times. It was a nice, loopy course that gave us a good amount of challenge without being too crazy.
We ended up going 3rd (I wanted to watch a couple other people go around just to be able to watch the course and learn it a bit more). I gave myself a mini pep talk "do NOT micromanage him, just let him do his job!". We picked up a lovely canter and headed to the first fence, and I stuck to my plan. Square turn, forward pace, and BAM, beautiful jump!
A big right hand turn to another vertical. Slightly deep distance, but because I just allowed him to adjust himself and figure it out, it went beautifully! Next was a left hand turn to a 7 stride line. These have been a few of our tricky spots in the last few shows, since I often work on a shortened stride with him, I have to remember how to pace him for a true 12' stride line.
I pushed him into a bigger stride, so we got a long distance in, but it worked out great! A perfect 7 strides and a lovely distance to the out! Then was an oxer off of a kind of funky line, but I got him straight and with a little extra leg, he popped right over! Next was my favorite jump, a triple bar! Don't know why, but I always enjoy jumping triple bars, and Banner jumps them really nicely!
A left turn to our natural looking wood fence oxer! Because of Banner's weird little right hand drift, our left hand turns aren't always super sharp, so I really had to control his quarters to this fence. Once we got straight, he locked right on. One stride out he gave it a teeny tiny little peek, but then popped over it without hesitation!
The next two fences were two square oxers, set in a bending line. The way that they were set gave you two distinct options between the two jumps. One was more direct, but would get you to the second oxer on a slight angle. The other option added probably another 4-5 strides, but would allow you to land straight from the first fence and arrive straight at the second fence.
As I had walked the course that morning, I told myself we would take the longer route to give him a more square approach to the second jump. Once I got on course, Banner felt SO good and he was right with me over every single fence, so I decided to try for the more direct route. It worked out beautifully! We got a very slightly deep distance at the second jump, but he jumped it on an angle without hesitation, which I was thrilled about!!
We ended our 2'9" course with a 4 stride line, and he crushed it. Probably our best ever 2'9" round! There were a handful more riders in the 2'9" so we just hung out and waited for the 3'0" round to start. I felt really happy with how he felt and had a really good feeling about the 3'0"!
Finally we headed in, and I picked up a steady, solid canter again. I cut the corner to the 1st fence just a bit, and it got us in to a deep distance. Nearly cleared it, but he just brushed it and took pretty much the whole fence down (oops). I yelled sorry to the jump crew as I passed - which made them laugh.
A nice ride to the second fence and I was super happy with how he was feeling! Next into the 7 stride line, and he felt FANTASTIC. So fluid, soft, forward. Then we rode the right turn to the brick wall oxer. He took off nice and square, felt great, and then he landed.... And he was 3-legged lame. I was confused by how he felt & got him pulled up about 6 strides later. And when I looked back, I realized his LH shoe was twisted about an inch and a half to the outside!
I immediately hopped right off and walked him out of the arena. His shoes have clips on them, and the inside clip poked into his sole by about 1/2". My trainer ran over to the main barn & grabbed the nippers and a rasp and we pulled the shoe off. It clearly hadn't felt good and he was pretty sensitive on that foot as I walked him back to the trailer. I pretty much immediately untacked, loaded up and went home.
Luckily before I left I managed to check the weekends scores & noticed that we took home 3rd in the Novice HT from this weekend, finishing on our dressage score! So at least that was a fun little highlight of the weekend that ended up turning bad right at the very end unfortunately.
I got Banner's foot soaked in some warm water & epsom salts once we got home! Then packed his foot with more epsom salts and got it wrapped up. He was pretty stiff & sore but seemed fairly sound after a few hours.
My farrier swung by on Monday and cleaned up his hoof. He's fairly sure that the clip managed to avoid going in too deep so I'm hoping we will avoid an abscess! We are both still thoroughly confused as to how this happened. Especially on a hind foot??? But anyways, the shoe is back on, fill is applied in the places where he ripped out hoof wall, and now I wait to see if he stays sound. No heat in his leg or hoof so that is a good sign! (I also did get a triple A+ from my farrier for my wrap job, so that was awesome!)
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